Woman Convicted In Death Of Sacramento Lawyer Released From Prison

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STOCKTON, Calif. (CBS13/AP) — A former Sacramento legal secretary convicted of poisoning her boss in 2001, then stashing his body, has been released from prison.

Sarah Dutra was a 21-year-old art student at California State University, Sacramento, when she befriended the wife of her boss, attorney Larry McNabney, and hatched a plot to poison McNabney with a horse tranquilizer and steal money from his law practice, according to prosecutors.

Dutra was released at 4:45 this morning from the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.

As the nation reeled from news of the East Coast terrorist attacks, Dutra and Sims drove through Yosemite National Park in search of a burial spot with the dying man in the backseat, prosecutors said. When they found the ground too rocky for digging, they brought him back to his Woodbridge home and stuffed the body in a garage refrigerator.

Over the next five months, prosecutors said, the pair spent McNabney’s money on shopping sprees, cars and vacations.

After his body was found in February 2002 buried in a vineyard near Linden, authorities arrested Sims, who had a long criminal history and list of aliases. She hanged herself in San Joaquin County jail, leaving behind a three-page confession that also implicated Dutra.

Dutra initially was charged with capital murder. But a jury ultimately convicted her of voluntary manslaughter and being an accessory to murder, and the judge sentenced her to the maximum 11-year term in Chowchilla prison.

Dutra was released to Solano County were she has family. She will be on active parole for three years.